Well I was woken by the Fire Department Wednesday morning to show me this..
Talk about a surprise ... it was quite surreal when I approached my transportation of 14 years to find her in this shape.
I had picked up my daughter from a school function the night before and parked it about 9:30pm. We had a deployment at work that I was able to do remotely via VPN so I worked till about 3AM and went to bed. Decided I would go into the office after noon, but just before 11 there was a knock at the door. I looked out the front window to see a Firetruck parked on the corner. I couldn't see my truck from this vantage point, so I opened the door. A fireman was just coming back around the corner, and asked me if I owned a pickup. I said yes, and asked him if he need me to move it or something. He said.. no .. It burned.
It took me a second to register and I must have said something like "huh.. Wha?" about the time I came around the corner of the house to see it.
My wife took my daughter to school before 8AM (in her car) and it was fine then.. so it had to have happened between 8 and 10:30ish. I asked the fireman how this could have happened, and he said that sometimes cars just catch on fire. Of course I am thinking WTF!
Did some research and apparently there is a problem with the cruise control brake pressure sensor switch. To the best of my knowledge I have never received a recall notice, but there is one issued. So if you have a 1993-2004 Ford truck, be sure to check if you vehicle is affected, or just take it in and have a dealership check it out! No matter what the age of the vehicle, as you can see it's worth having it looked at. I can't imagine the damage this could have caused had it been parked in a garage.
So I am a bit bummed out. I had full coverage insurance on it, but with only 80K miles on it, and in excellent condition, there is no way they will give me what it was worth to me to just drive. I hadn't planned on getting rid of it for a long time, even if I got a new car.